Pamela Chapman, BSN, RN
TESTIMONY
For the Subcommitte on Approripate Supply and Utilization
of Michigan's Health Care Workforce of the Standing
Committee on HEALTH POLICY
Monday, July 2, 2001
Submitted by Pamela Chapman, BSN, RN
My name is Pamela Chapman, I have been in the field
of nursing for nearly thirty (30) years. I began my
nursing career as a licensed practical nurse in 1971.
I have been a registered nurse since 1986. Presently,
I work at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, and
serve as the current president of Michigan Nurses Association
Chapter Five (5).
There are many issues that face nursing today. The
most pressing is the nursing shortage. When I talk
with my peers and colleagues about the nursing shortage,
they believe there is a shortage. They believe there
is a shortage, in part, due to poor working conditions,
inadequate pay, less than appropriate benefits, and
a general lack of respect by administration and management.
Coupled with the declining image of nursing, it's enough
to challenge one's decision to become a nurse or, for
some, to continue in the practice of nursing.
I believe that nursing is still a worthy and noble
profession, one of service and devotion to humankind.
But, we are the walking wounded. I have watched the
optimism and idealism of many nurses shatter into a
thousand pieces of pessimism and cynicism, as they
stood helpless in a pool of isolation; a pool that
I too have waded in more than once.
When did our optimism turn to pessimism? I am sure
we cannot know exactly when it happened. It could have
happened because we were tired from working so many
mandatory overtime shifts or working short staffed.
Or, when we vehemently advocated for our patient's
right for self-determination. Or, when we held a dying
child in our arms and wondered how we were ever going
to comfort the mother. Or, did it happen when we stood
helplessly by and witnessed death and the tearful farewell
of a spouse, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother,
a child, or a friend? Perhaps, it happened as we witnessed
the grief and sorrow of one family turn to hope and
joy for another, as we worked diligently to preserve
the precious life of the organs of a teenager killed
in a tragic car crash.
This is real, this is what nurses do. We look in the
face of life and death, joy and sorrow everyday. We
do it because we want to and most of us would walk
the same path if we had it to do over. I love being
a nurse; it is what I am and what I have been my whole
life; it is all I know.
I believe that nursing has the power and creativity
to solve many of its own issues. But, we have to be
trusted with the responsibility. We have to be invited
to the decision-making table. We have to be allowed
to bring forth issues, concerns, and problems without
fear of administrative retaliation. We must be present
at all levels when nursing policy is set, not after
it is set. We have to be allowed to embrace our own
nursing values, and be allowed to challenge the organizational
values that do not encompass nursing's principles and
ethics. When this happens, nursing will regain the
respect and virtue that the profession so richly deserves.
I am grateful for the generosity of this committee
to hear my humble opinions.
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